Robert Léauté presented
the James F. Guymon Lecture at the 40th, Annual Meeting of the American
Society for Enology and Viticulture in Anaheim, California, on 30
June 1989. Léauté has been with Rémy Martin
since 1973 and is currently Head Cognac Master, Research and Development
Manager, and RMS Vineyards Technical Advisor. The text of his presentation
has been edited for publication, but not subjected to the normal
review process.

History of Distillation

Alambic Distillation is a very old technique,
which was, used by the Chinese 3000 years BC, the East Indians 2500
years BC, the Egyptians 2000 years BC, the Greeks1000 years BC,
and the Romans 200 years BC. In the beginning, all of the above
cultures produced a liquid, later called alcohol by the Arabs, which
was used for medicinal purposes and to make perfumes.
- (Fig 1) -

By the sixth century AD, the Arabs had started
to invade Europe and at the same time released the technique of
distillation. Alchemists and monks progressively improved both the
technique and the distillation equipment.

In 1250, Arnaud de Villeneuve was the first
to distill wines in France; he called the product, which resulted
from this process, eau-de-vie or Water Of life. He attributed to
it the virtue of prolonging life.

Today, the pot still used in the Cognac area
is known as an alambic. "Ambix" is a Greek word defined
as a vase with a small opening. This vase was part of the distillation
equipment. Initially, the Arabs changed the word "Ambix”
to "Ambic' and called the distillation equipment "Al Ambic."
Later in Europe, the word was changed to alambic. The Dutch, French,
Irish, Scottish, and others started producing distilled spirits
around the 15th and the 16th century. They created gin (Holland),
whiskey (Scotland and Ireland), Armagnac (France), and Cognac (France).

If the capacity of the still depended on the
purpose of the distillation, then the shape was related to the country
that used the distillation equipment. In the Cognac region around
1600, the Chevalier of Croix Marron perfected the eau-de-vie through
double distillation. In France, Chaptal (1780) and Adam (1805) dramatically
improved the efficiency of distillation and gave the alambic its
final design. The Cognac makers, continually seeking to obtain the
best quality for their Cognac, brought both the Alambic design and
the double distillation methods to the peak of perfection.

Bourbons and whiskies were first produced around
1750. In the booklet America Brandy Land, published by the California
Brandy Advisory Board, the Mission San Fernando produced around
2000 barrels of brandy during the 1830s. Father Duran, the brandy
maker at Mission Santa Barbara, produced brandy double distillation.

Progressively during the 1950s, most of brandy
producers gave up distilling. Those who continued to distill preferred
use of the column still because of its ability to produce a brandy
compatible to the consumer trend.

During the last decade, in California, one
has noticed the American palate becoming more and more educated
and ready for sophisticated products. At the same time, many wines
and sparkling wines have reached a very high level of quality and
are recognized as world-class products. In the 1980s, well-established
and new brandy producers decided the time had come to develop a
more complex California brandy. Today, if one produces a brandy
using an 'alambic" and the Cognac distillation method, the
brandy can be called Alambic brandy.

The most famous alambic manufacturers (Binaud,
Chalvignac, Mareste, R. Prulho, and the creator of our own still,
Jean-Louis Stupfler) are based in the Cognac and Bordeaux regions of France.

An alambic is made of copper and bronze. Some
of the alambic parts not important to the quality of the Cognac
or the brandy can be made of stainless steel for practical reasons
(e.g., valves, fittings, condenser tank).

However, copper remains the most efficient
metal to build alambics. Copper offers the following advantages:

It is malleable; it is a good conductor of
heat; It resists corrosion from fire and from wine; It reacts with
wine components such as sulfur components and fatty acids (this
property is always favorable for the Cognac or brandy quality);
And it is a catalyst for favorable reactions between wine components.